GenCon Indy 2007

Can you believe this is Nathan and me? So, GenCon went well. For those of you who don't know what GenCon is, it's the largest gaming convention in the country that doesn't largely involve video games. This is role-playing games, like Dungeons and Dragons, collectible card games, like Magic: The Gathering, and all the board games and miniature gaming stuff. Yeah, it's awesome.

What you are seeing above is a piece done by Jason Engle, for the Demon Hunters Role-Playing Game, which will be coming out this fall by Margaret Weis Productions. That's right, the folks who brought you the Serenity Role-playing Game and the new Battlestar Galactica Role-playing game, licensed Dead Gentlemen's Demon Hunters property to do a new role-playing game. So far, the feedback is that it's one of the hilarious good times in role-playing to be had. I co-directed the DVD that will be packaged with the game, and we played it at the booth throughout the con. In the Spring, Ben and I directed the Demon Hunters: Brotherhood Orientation Video, which makes the Demon Hunters RPG the first role-playing game ever to have video content packaged with it. We're nominated for an award for next year already!

The video gathered a crowd like the old days when our movie The Gamers was still new. It was refreshing to see that we could still draw a crowd.

In attendance from our group was also Cindy, Steve Wolbrecht, Chris Duppenthaler, Jen & Dave Page, and Chris and Sarah Ode. We had a blast hanging out with our friends at Margaret Weis Productions.

You can click HERE for more GenCon pictures.

We had a screening of The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, which was packed. That was even on a Friday afternoon at 4pm, when people were running games and whatnot! There was even a panel for Monte Cook that people had to skip out on (Sorry Monte).

We were also invited as special guests to Tracy Hickman's Killer Breakfast, which is this Improvisational show he does, running a game with people from the audience as players, and killing their characters in creative ways. It's really a spectacular and entertaining show. And HUMBLING! We were invited along with people like Ed Greenwood and even Gary Gygax (Co-creator of D&D)!!!

I died in the first 30 seconds at the table when he asked "why are you here?" to which I bent over to the microphone replied in my deepest voice, "I'm Johnny Cash". Apparently that was explanation enough for him, and I was going to answer every question with a Johnny Cash song, but my improv wasn't up to snuff and was dead in a matter of moments.

Well, that's about all I can say for now on the trip. Of course promptly upon returning I got some kind of head cold that laid me out. I went to bed at 6:30pm last night. My sinus still kind of feel like they want to implode. Everyone at the office is getting it too, and I know it's not because of me since people I haven't seen in person in over two months are coming down with the same symptoms on the other side of the city.

Ick.

Allergisick

Either my allergies are crazy or I came down with something, but holy crap do I feel awful. I left LA for GenCon on Wednesday the 15th with a bad sore throat. When I got to Indy, the sore throat was gone and I felt great.

Came back from Indy on Monday, and within hours I was under the weather again. Ug. Went home at noon today from work because I couldn't concentrate. Not good when you're trying to be a good leader.

Going to be spending a lot of time with a Kleenex box and OTC drugs. When my mind is more coherent, I'll post an update on how the convention went. In short, it was awesome. Very reassuring that we can still draw a constant crowd at the booth. Unfortunately sales were down to about half this year. Oh well. That's what happens when you don't have anything new to sell.

Haven't gotten the numbers from the other booth yet. Well, Ta for now.

Knott's in my throat

On Saturday, to celebrate Camille's birthday we all went to Knott's Berry Farm. You can tell I'm not from around here, because when I first heard that's what we were doing I thought to myself "Why the F are we going to a jam factory? How is that all 'Happy Birthday'? Does Camille have a jam fetish I don't know about?"

So yeah, besides jam, they have big roller coasters. One of which scared the piss out of both Cindy and I. We got the picture, but I don't have a scanner so I can't share it. However, I can share the pictures we did take.

Here's us just getting into the theme park when it's 100 degrees outside and all we want is something cool to drink. If you look behind me, you'll find a stand full of ice cold refreshments THAT WE COULDN'T BUY BECAUSE THE DAMNED TWIT'S CASH REGISTER WAS BROKE or something. She wouldn't even accept exact change.

I thought I'd record my demeanor about the whole situation for the rest of you. I'm sure you appreciate it.

Here we are trying to figure out what kind of jam they sell... Oh, and that's our new married couple friends, Katy and Jeremy. They now play D&D with us. They're hooked, and it's my fault. :)

Here's Jeremy and I chillin on the river raft ride that only lasted about 30 seconds after standing in line for about a half an hour.

I actually didn't get sunburned. Although, Katy got soaked. It was nice to have some cool water nearby though, after not being able to buy the obviously cold and refreshing beverages that just teased you as you walked in the gate. I mean that's just evil, people!

And speaking of evil, let me introduce you to Ghost Rider. This is one of the largest wooden roller coasters in the world. It's also one scary S.O.B. This is a ride that when you get off of it, you hurt. It shakes, rattles, and rolls you all over hell and back. I wish I could show you the picture, we both thought we were going to die.


I'm sure it's supposed to be safe and no one has died yet. But wow, let me just say, it's a real trip.

Unfortunately, I think it turns out that Knott's Berry Farm is also in one of the more polluted areas of LA. So either the fact that I was screaming at the top of my lungs, combined with the fact that there's a bunch of screaming kids around, or the pollution, or all of the above... well, what I'm trying to say is that I ended up with an inflamed sore throat for the past few days. I blame Ghost Rider.


Well, tomorrow I leave for GenCon in Indianapolis. So, a sore throat just in time to talk all day to a huge constant crowd. When did fun get so hard on me?